Titanic producer Nigel Stafford-Clark has accepted responsibility for the ITV1 show's declining ratings.
The £12m mini-series, written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, opened with nearly seven million viewers in March but has since lost over half its audience.
Stafford-Clark admitted that the show's non-linear plot, which sees the ship hit the iceberg in each episode as it focuses on different classes, was his idea, and suggested that this was the reason for the ratings drop.
"I have to accept that people have found it hard to get around. In that sense I am responsible," he told The Guardian.
"The scripts were very good. Julian is not in any way responsible for this. He wrote the scripts over 18 months to two years, it was not done in a hurry. The series was sold off the back of the script."
Executive producer Simon Vaughan confessed that he had no idea Titanic would have such competition when he first pitched a TV drama to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster five years ago.
James Cameron's movie of the same name has been re-released in 3D, while various TV documentaries, such as BBC One's Titanic with Len Goodman and Channel 5's Nazi Titanic: Revealed, have aired.
However, the ITV Studios show is still being deemed a commercial success after being sold to nearly 100 countries. It will be released on DVD in the UK on Monday (April 16).
"As a piece of business it's been exceptional, financially extremely valuable to everyone involved," Vaughan said.
An ITV spokesman added: "The 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking was marked with programmes from all the channels, and we are proud to have offered our audience a new drama that had real scale and ambition."
